victor - 9:51 am on Jul 13, 2004 (gmt 0)

This seems very relevant at this point....

I picked up a book, discarded as obsolete, at my local library last week. Published in 1972, it attempts (with a fair degree of accuracy) to predict what computing will be like in the year 2000.

Here's the quote:

Now, in fact, it is not difficult to believe that the individuals comprising a car firm might, virtually to a man, believe singly that cars should be much safer than they are. Collectively, however, they have found it impossible to introduce many safety features, or even offer them as optional extras and encourage motorists to buy them, or even commit modest sums to the necessary basic research. Further, very commonly, car advertising, styling, and even the names of the models has been based on speed, power and aggression to the exclusion of virtually everything else, or to comfort luxury and superiority: very seldom to safety. It needed a Ralph Nader to force car manufacturers to begin to take their social responsibilities seriously.

We have described this at some length because we feel it is of particular importance to the computer industry -- hardware, or even more especially, software -- should not allow itself to get into a state where another Ralph Nader (or the same one) will be needed to force systems to be safe, accurate, reliable, and impossible to corrupt or misuse.

Computers and the year 2000. NCC Publications

Think about that: 32 years ago they foresaw the need for a software Ralph Nader. Instead, we got Bill Gates.